PARIS – French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna stood next to Niger’s President in the capital, Niamey, two weeks ago and trumpeted the country’s role as a key partner while pledging fresh financial aid.

Today, President Mohamed Bazoum is being held hostage by his own security guards following a coup, and France’s Africa strategy is in tatters as it struggles to convince nations in the Sahel region that the presence of a former colonial power can bring results.

Niger means a lot to France. Not only has the African nation kept close business and cultural ties, but it also became the main base for French troops fighting militants in the area after they withdrew from Mali days before Russia invaded Ukraine.

Yet Paris has faced local protests and criticism over its continued presence in – and varying degrees of influence over – its former colonies, while seeing Russia gain clout in what has traditionally been part of its sphere of influence.

“They have to keep quiet, to be silent as much as possible; every single word they pronounce is used against them,” said Mr Moussa Mara, who served as Mali’s prime minister under the late Mr Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, the French-aligned president ousted in a 2020 coup.

“But this is the French attitude; unfortunately, they are not able to keep quiet,” he said.

He added that France had become a kind of scapegoat whereby leaders put the spotlight on French mistakes and behaviour to create a diversion from domestic problems.

The French government said on Tuesday that it was preparing to evacuate its citizens and other Europeans immediately, after the closure of the Niger’s airspace made it impossible for them to leave on their own. 

French President Emmanuel Macron was counting on Niger to reshape his strategy in the Sahel, an arid area that stretches across several West African countries. The region had also been at the centre of Mr Macron’s ambition to build bridges between developed nations and the so-called Global South.

Hours after the coup, the military junta slammed Paris and accused it of planning an intervention to reinstate Mr Bazoum – a throwback to its behaviour in decades past – and of using lethal force, which France denies, to defend its embassy after its door was set on fire.

In response, the French government, which has 1,500 troops stationed in Niger, suspended aid that amounted to €120 million (S$176 million) in 2022 and warned it would retaliate if any of its citizens were attacked.

Mr Macron backed the Economic Community of West African States, a regional bloc, which warned it may use military force to remove the leader of the coup unless Niger’s democratically elected president is reinstated.

In a sign of the sensitivity of France’s military presence in Africa, the French defence minister lashed out earlier in 2023 against the Marvel Studios movie Black Panther: Wakanda Forever over its portrayal of French soldiers, depicting them as mercenaries stealing resources.

Mr Seidik Abba, president of the Centre International de Reflexions et d’Etudes sur le Sahel, a think-tank, said Niger’s partnership with Paris had not delivered the results that Nigeriens had expected, despite the presence of thousands of troops and large military installations. He pointed to differences in terms of approach and goals compared with the United States.

“The French, unlike the Americans, for example, came here to hunt down insurgents,” he said. “The US is focused on the situation in the Maghreb, the drug trafficking in the north and training of Nigerien special forces.”

Ms Rym Momtaz, a Paris-based researcher for the International Institute for Strategic Studies, also a think-tank, said a pattern was emerging whereby coups in Mali, Burkina Faso and now Niger were followed by attacks on French embassies and other buildings, as well as demands for the withdrawal of troops that were present by invitation of legitimate governments and the raising of Russian flags.

Mali, also a former colony, has ditched French as an official language in recent days.

The coup creates a strip of military-run countries stretching from the Atlantic Ocean to the Red Sea – most of which are more closely aligned to Russia than to the West. Niger was a rare voice in Africa that voted to condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine at the United Nations. 

Russia’s Wagner mercenary group has security ties with Mali and the Central African Republic, another former French colony, underscoring Moscow’s rising influence in the region. It has also held talks with military rulers in Burkina Faso who also expelled French troops, according to people familiar with the matter.

In June, Mr Bazoum attended a summit held by Mr Macron in Paris that aimed to rebalance the financial relationship between rich and poor countries. In Niamey two weeks ago, France’s Ms Colonna praised the relationship with Niger as “one that must be strengthened and continued”.

The European Union and the US see Niger, Africa’s second-biggest uranium producer and the leading one for European utilities, as a reliable partner in a Sahel plagued by political and economic instability.

While Mr Macron has reached out to new, non-francophone partners in Africa and urged civil society to better defend interests there, losing its traditional partners could have deep repercussions for its international stance.

“The coup, if it ends up being successful, is a significant setback for France’s power projection in the region,” Ms Momtaz said. “Niger was the democratic bulwark in this part of Africa.” BLOOMBERG